New York Metro Weather maintains a popular and playful social-media presence. Like, do we start to disrupt the Arctic just enough to start moving that air around so it’s almost like we get the opposite of what you would expect, which is that for a while the winters in New York turn colder and more extreme? There’s a lot of different angles and possibilities, and I think it’s just too early to tell how that’s going to evolve. One of the theories that came up in addition to those warm water temps leading to stronger storms was what happens in the Arctic. It doesn’t sound like you think future winters will automatically see less snow than what we’re used to. And that data goes back to 1890 something. What I will say is, I don’t necessarily think it’s a coincidence that when you look at the last 10 or 15 very long stretches in New York without snowfall, more than 50 percent or 60 percent of them are within the last 10, 20 years. I think the jury is still out on how the changes that are occurring will impact our chances for snow or cold. And even in 2014, we had this big polar vortex event, and a lot of that was tied to - is the climate changing? Is the polar vortex starting to move around more than usual? Things like that. When we look at the effects of the climate - one of the things we saw in the early 2010s, when we had a ridiculous stretch of snow in New York, was how the climate was making the waters warmer off the coast and allowing for stronger coastal storms to form, which in turn gave us historic snowy winters from 2009 to 2013. To me, the question becomes more complex when you dive into how it’s affecting our sensible weather. Personally, I think everyone knows what’s going on at this point. I knew that was true a few years ago, but thought it would have died out by now. They’d rather talk about the meteorology of it and not necessarily dive in. Well, sometimes I’ll read or hear people and they’ll skirt the question a little bit. A lot of people want to hedge on that - I’ll go on the record.Ī lot of meteorologists want to hedge on that? Obviously I’m a firm believer in the human impact on the climate. How do you think about warming as it relates to the lack of snow this winter, and how do you try to incorporate it in the way you communicate with the public? I know that’s a tricky thing for a meteorologist to factor in. Whenever there’s an anomalous period of warmth, one’s mind goes to climate change. Our peak climatology for snow is from very late January into early to mid-February. And the upcoming pattern is active, so I think there will be chances and opportunities. We can get snow with normal temperatures.

You always have to remember that normal this time of year is pretty cold. 100 percent - at least getting us closer to normal or slightly below normal. I did see that it may start to turn colder soon. I think we’ll have plenty of chances to see snow here in the next couple weeks.Īs a snow lover, those are comforting words to me. That being said, there’s a long winter ahead, a lot of time left. All that mild air just took over the country. We had very mild Pacific air flowing into the country, the same jet stream that brought all that rain to California. And then after that, the pattern really took a turn for the worse. It was just kind of the luck of the draw - we didn’t get a storm where we needed it to be. The meteorology behind it is that we got very unlucky in late December. The thing is the pattern has just been hostile toward snow, particularly along the coast - there’s been plenty of snow in the interior Northeast. I think it’s safe to say that we have not seen our last snowflakes.

That was set in 1973, which is actually the least snowy winter on record in New York. I can’t remember which year that was set.

We’ve now gone 316 days without measurable snow in New York City, the fourth-longest streak ever, and approaching the all-time record of 329.

New york weather